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23 October 2013

The Public Utilities Regulatory
Commission (PURC) has debunked assertions that its inability to
implement the automatic adjustment formula (AAF) was due to government
interference.

Officials say that following the
recent major tariff review process, the AAF will be implemented in
January, 2014, taking into account existing tariffs.

According to the Executive Secretary of the PURC, Mr Samuel Sarpong,
although the AAF was used in the past, the implementation of the scheme
stalled in 2012, due to the accident which occurred on the West African
Gas Pipeline, coupled with the fact that at the time, the commission was
going through a major tariff review process.

"In view of the above, the commission did not deem it acceptable and
fair to apply the formula in tariff increment when there was no definite
timeline for the completion of the repair works on the gas pipelines”,
Mr Sarpong stated.

Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday on the backdrop of
assertions that the PURC had failed to implement the AAF since 2011, Mr
Sarpong indicated that although in the second quarter of 2011, the
commission reviewed tariffs using the formula, poor service to clients
prompted officials not to pass it onto the consumers.

Quality of Service

The commission, which described service delivery by providers as
“woefully unacceptable," particularly with the use of some pre-paid
meters, had tasked the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the
Northern Electricity Development Company (NEDCo) to plan how it intended
to address the problems reported by customers.

“Retrospective billing, high failure rate of fuses and pre-paid
meters at Legon and Kwabenya districts, problematic deployment of
pre-paid meters at Bortianor, Teshie-Nungua and inadequate training for
frontline staff and credit vendors are challenges that need immediate
attention”, the executive secretary said.

Mr Sarpong indicated that the challenges which were identified by the
commission during a monitoring exercise it conducted after the
announcement of the 78.9 per cent increase in electricity tariffs,
further tasked the ECG and NEDCo to submit an action plan on how to
address the above-mentioned challenges to the commission.